Wheelchair Tennis Support Profile

Sport: Wheelchair Tennis
Performance Director: Geraint Richards
Athletes EIS work with: 19
Investment in EIS services since 2009: £89,319
EIS services accessed: Strength & Conditioning, Performance Lifestyle, Physiotherapy
Hours of support received: 5,117

The EIS team behind Wheelchair Tennis

The EIS provides a range of services to the GB Wheelchair Tennis squad including strength & conditioning, physiotherapy and performance lifestyle out of their base at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.

Strength & Conditioning Coach Nick Cooper has been working with the wheelchair tennis squad since 2010 and provided an insight into his work:

“As S&C coach I am based at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton but also travel with players to selected tournaments and training camps.”

“The challenges wheelchair tennis players face are quite unique. Players must prepare for tournaments often without knowing in advance start times for matches and with matches potentially lasting from between 45 minutes to 3 hours. They could also play up to 3 matches in a day if playing singles and doubles.

“Time has been spent educating players and coaching staff to ensure they are skilled and responsible for self-managing training, match preparation and recovery while overseas at tournaments. The two primary aims of the strength & conditioning programme have been to build robustness to reduce the risk of injury and to develop on court specific conditioning. Chair movement skills and fitness training has been ‘dovetailed’ into technical hitting sessions to enable players to develop the ability to maintain technical execution under increasing levels of fatigue.”

Sophie Haynes, Performance Lifestyle Advisor to the squad outlined the work she has been doing with the squad :

“Performance Lifestyle support is also primarily delivered out of the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, London although the service can be accessed by all players on the squad, regardless of location.  Ongoing 1-2-1 support is currently the key focus working with individual athletes to assess needs as well as to identify possible development opportunities for them, including the utilisation of Personal Development Awards.

“Performance Lifestyle workshops are regularly conducted at National Training Camps and recent topics we’ve covered include Sponsorship and London 2012 Preparation, critical components in the lifestyle of an elite paralympic athlete.”